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Fledgling New York-based distributor 1-2 Special has made two announcements heading into Cannes, appointing Amanda Trokan as SVP of acquisitions and Nico Chapin as VP of publicity.

Former Sideshow executive Jason Hellerstein launched the company in February to champion international and US festival films and recently pick up its first feature, Radu Jude’s Berlinale dark comedy Kontinental ’25. The team will be attending Cannes as they look to strategically expand the current slate.

With nearly two decades of experience, Trokan joins 1-2 Special after leading the North American programming team at Mubi. While overseeing platform curation and licensing, Trokan...

New York-based distribution company 1-2 Special has appointed Amanda Trokan as senior vice president of acquisitions and Nico Chapin as vice president of publicity.

The company was founded in February by former Sideshow executive Jason Hellerstein with the goal of acquiring and releasing films from top-tier domestic and international festivals. The company recently acquired its first feature, “Kontinental ‘25,” from director Radu Jude, out of the Berlin International Film Festival. The hires come as 1-2 Special is gearing up for Cannes.

Trokan joins 1-2 Special after leading the North American programming team at global streamer Mubi. While overseeing platform curation and licensing, Trokan negotiated deals for new films from Hirokazu Kore-eda, Quentin Dupieux, Rodrigo Sorogoyen, Alex Ross Perry, Rebecca Zlotowski, Albert Serra, Tyler Taormina, Martín Rejtman, Vera Drew, Alonso Ruizpalacios, Radu Jude and others.

Trokan joined Mubi as a decade-plus HBO veteran, spending eight years as an executive on the company’s film acquisitions team.

Alfred Hitchcock, the late “Master of Suspense,” and Jiří Menzel, the late Czech director who won the foreign-language film Oscar for 1966’s Closely Watched Trains, will get some screen love during the 15th edition of the Beijing International Film Festival.

The “Homage-Restoration” section of the fest will feature, among others, Hitchcock’s classic spy thriller North by Northwest, starring Cary Grant, Eva Marie Saint, and James Mason, and late Belgian filmmaker Chantal Akerman’s Meetings With Anna, starring Aurore Clément and Jean-Pierre Cassel, in new 4K restorations.

Anna is about an emotionally unavailable filmmaker who is traveling through Western Europe to promote her new film, meeting with strangers, friends, former lovers, and family members. North by Northwest is known as a tale of mistaken identity, featuring a man pursued by agents of a mysterious organization.

The Beijing festival organizers also unveiled that this year’s “Homage” section will put a...

Late New Hollywood legend Robert Altman (Gosford Park, M*A*S*H), late master of violence Sam Peckinpah, and Dogme 95, the Danish avant-garde movement led by directors Lars von Trier and Thomas Vinterberg (Another Round), will get the spotlight treatment at the 15th edition of the Beijing International Film Festival

“To commemorate the 130th anniversary of world cinema,” the Beijing fest has curated a retrospective program “to document the history of film and envision its future,” organizers said. “With a curated selection of cinematic classics, the festival blends nostalgia with new perspectives, drawing inspiration from the past to ignite future creativity.”

Among the offerings will be “Endless Waves: 30 Years of the Dogme 95.” The Dogme 95 Manifesto expressed a commitment to create movies focused on storytelling, acting, and theme rather than the elaborate use of special effects or technological tricks. One of its key goals was to empower directors as artists. The...

In one of the highest profile deals announced at Series Mania, European TV giant Beta Film has boarded crime series “Cecilie Mars,” created and helmed by Christoffer Boe, rated one of Denmark’s best directors, and produced by Karoline Leth for double Oscar winner Zentropa Entertainments(“In a Better World,” “Another Drink”).

Beta Film has secured international distribution rights to the series which will be presented by Boe and Leth at Series Mania’s Co-Pro Pitching Sessions on March 25 in Lille’s Grand Palais Grand Théâtre, its biggest screening venue which is still habitually packed for the Sessions.

“Cecilie Mars” rates as one of the Sessions’ biggest 2025 buzz titles. Described by Beta Film as a “fresh and twisted take on the thriller genre,” the six-part series turns on Cecilie Mars, a driven and model new police commissioner who is secretly consumed by a past trauma. When a case hits too...

International series do not lack scale and ambition.

The lineup of this year’s Series Mania, the TV festival and industry meet that runs through March 28 in Lille, France, includes historic epics like Joe Wright’s rise-to-fascism biography Mussolini: Son of The Century, real-life action thriller Kabul, which traces the fall of Afghan capital to the Taliban in 2021, and Liongate’s spy drama The German, from the creators of Fauda and Tehran, about Holocaust survivors recruited to track down Nazi war criminals.

Add to that the screenings at the festival’s upfront event, held Monday, March 24, where top-tier buyers get a sneak peek at upcoming international series. The 10 featured upfront shows include German fantasy epic War of the Kingdoms, Korean sci-fi series S Line and Swiss thriller The Deal, starring The Broken Circle Breakdown star Veerle Baetens as a diplomat tasked with brokering last-chance nuclear negotiations between the U.S.

Argentine multi-hyphenates Tamae Garateguy (“Auxilio”), Sant Giralt (“Before Opening Night”) and Camila Toker (“La danza del impacto”) reunite to debut the fourth installment of their sardonic and timely Upa! Saga, “Upa! A Spring in Athens” (“Upa! Una primavera en Atenas”), its world premiere set to open the 26th edition of the Buenos Aires International Independent Film Festival (Bafici), running April 1-13.

Produced by Giralt and Fede Carol’s Los Griegos Films and Garateguy, Giralt and Toker’s upafilms alongside associate producer Hildegunn Wærness — who reprises the role of exotic ingénue Hilde, the project offers a satirical look at the independent film circuit. Full of acerbic hedonism, reverie and tragedy, the narrative sinks into a universe the trio concocted that spans decades and sees them embody their on-screen alter-egos, Ailén, Nina and Pina, who wind through the minutiae of the industry, one let-down at a time — no trope left unexamined, no ego left unscathed,...

Extensively labeled as one of the best genres in the history of film, drama can connect audiences with interesting characters, meaningful narratives and well-constructed technical qualities that enhance the viewing experience of a movie. As the decade of the 2020s introduced moviegoers to wonderful films, there have also been great dramas to come along and make an impression; so much so, that a collection of acclaimed drama movies have already earned their placement as instant classics within the wider landscape of cinema.

Defined by cultural status and top-notch filmmaking, a classic drama film should captivate viewers at every turn and display timeless storytelling that always provokes an audience to rewatch said movie to gain some perspective. With several solid pieces of drama produced in the 2020s, fans can look at these works with excitement and depth.

Everything Everywhere All at Once Explores Family Drama Excitingly

Conceived as a fantastical reaction...

The BBC has acquired Families Like Ours, a new Danish drama series created by acclaimed director Thomas Vinterberg, for BBC iPlayer and BBC Four. The series, set in a near-future Denmark facing catastrophic flooding, explores the human impact of forced evacuation and separation. Here’s the Lowdown: Families Like Ours, written by […]

BBC Grabs Dystopian Danish Drama Families Like Ours...

The BBC has bought the TV series Families Like Ours, which was made by Oscar-nominated Danish director Thomas Vinterberg. This is Vinterberg’s first time working on a TV show.

The show takes place in Denmark in the near future when rising water levels force the country to be evacuated. People must leave behind everything they know and love as they move to different places. It was filmed in five countries and was shown at film festivals in Venice and Toronto before airing in Scandinavia and on Canal+ last year.

The series stars Amaryllis August, Albert Rudbeck Lindhardt, Nikolaj Lie Kaas, Paprika Steen, Helene Reingaard Neumann, Magnus Millang, Esben Smed, Thomas Bo Larsen, David Dencik, Asta Kamma August, and Max Kaysen Høyrup.

Vinterberg shared his excitement about bringing the show to the UK, saying he has always felt a strong connection to the country. He is eager to see how...

The BBC has acquired “Families Like Ours,” the debut TV drama by Oscar-winning director Thomas Vinterberg for the U.K.

Written by Vinterberg and Bo Hr. Hansen and having first premiered at last year’s Venice Film Festival, the 7-part “Families Like Ours” is set in a near-future Denmark where rising water levels can no longer be ignored and the country needs to be evacuated. As people disperse in all directions, they must bid farewell to what they love, what they know, and who they are.

It was shot across five countries and stars Amaryllis August, Albert Rudbeck Lindhardt, Nikolaj Lie Kaas, Paprika Steen, Helene Reingaard Neumann, Magnus Millang, Esben Smed, Thomas Bo Larsen, David Dencik, Asta Kamma August, and Max Kaysen Høyrup.

“I have a deepfelt connection with the U.K. and as you will see, it also plays a part in this series. Therefore, it is with eager...

The BBC has acquired Families Like Ours, the debut TV drama series from Oscar-winning director Thomas Vinterberg (Another Round).

Premiering at the Venice Film Festival last year, the series imagines a near future where rising sea levels force Denmark to evacuate the entire population of the country, turning their six million citizens into refugees, forced to seek shelter in whichever countries will have them. The seven-part series follows the fate of individual families as they struggle to find a home outside their native land.

Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter, Vinterberg said he strived to avoid “disaster film clichés” to focus on the human drama of climate change and mass migration, creating “a dystopia in slow motion.”

Vinterberg said he was initially inspired to write the series after seeing the response to Syrian refugees coming to Europe in the wake of the country’s civil war and wondering “what would happen if we were the refugees,...

The BBC has acquired Oscar-nominated director Thomas Vinterberg’s first TV series.

The corporation has picked up the apocalyptic Families Like Ours from Studiocanal.

Families Like Ours, which premiered at Venice and launched on Scandi broadcasters and Canal+ late last year, is set in Denmark in a not-too-distant future where rising water levels can no longer be ignored and the country needs to be evacuated. As people disperse in all directions, they must bid farewell to what they love, what they know, and who they are. Shot across five countries, the series was shown at Venice and Toronto. It stars Amaryllis August, Albert Rudbeck Lindhardt, Nikolaj Lie Kaas, Paprika Steen, Helene Reingaard Neumann, Magnus Millang, Esben Smed, Thomas Bo Larsen, David Dencik, Asta Kamma August, and Max Kaysen Høyrup.

Vinterberg said he has always had a “deepfelt connection with the UK and as you will see, it also plays a part in this series.

Entrepreneur and TV producer Daniel Domenjó has been named CEO of Movistar Plus+, Spain’s biggest national payTV/streaming service, replacing Cristina Burzako.

The appointment was announced by Movistar Plus+ parent Telefónica on Thursday.

The same reshuffle sees the departure of Sergio Oslé, president of Movistar Plus+ from 2017. Promoted to managing director of Teléfonica Spain in 2021, he continued to champion Movistar Plus+. He is replaced by Javier de la Paz, already a Telefónica board member.

Burzako will remain a board member of brand Movistar Plus+’s official company name Telefónica Audiovisual Digital and will take on new responsibilities in the group.

The massive management overhaul at the Spanish telco has been sparked by the substitution this January of José María Alvárez-Pallete by former Indra Sistemas Marc Murtra as its chairman-ceo.

That change came in turn after Saudi Arabian telecoms group Stc announced in 2023 that it had bought 4.9% of Telefonica, signalling...

Chris Rock is playing coy about hosting the Academy Awards again. The former host — who was involved in one of the most memorable moments in Oscars history when he was slapped by Will Smith onstage — remained vague when asked whether or not he would tackle the role taken on by Conan O'Brien in this year's ceremony.

Considering all that he had to endure not only during the 2022 Oscars, but the fallout after the fact, it's not surprising that the Fargo star was hesitant to commit to returning. But given that Rock was all about "forgiveness" when E! News asked him about it at the Vanity Fair Oscar Party, we could absolutely see a world where he comes back and hosts the show again. But if you want to know exactly what he had to say about the matter, keep reading below!

RelatedChris Rock Faces Humorous Threat from Another Round Director...

Martin Scorsese, Jane Campion and Wes Anderson are among the signees of an appeal to stave off the impending threat that a substantial portion of Rome’s movie theaters could be converted into shopping centers and supermarkets under proposed regional legislation.

Alarm over the future of the Eternal City’s cinemas was prompted last month after asset management companies Colliers Global Investors and Wrm Capital won a Rome real estate bankruptcy auction and acquired nine movie theaters for a reported €50 million ($52 million).

Some of these venues, such as the city’s central Cinema Adriano multiplex, are fully operational, while others have long been shuttered. The person behind the fund is believed to be Italian-British financier Raffaele Mincione.

Meanwhile, a new regional piece of legislation is being drafted — and is up for approval this week — that would remove norms that currently prevent Rome movie theaters from being converted into any other...

A vote is scheduled for next week in Italy that could turn cultural venues in Rome — including 50 movie theaters — into shopping malls and supermarkets. Martin Scorsese is among the filmmakers petitioning to save them.

Architect Renzo Piano has shared a letter whose appeal has now been endorsed by filmmakers and Hollywood luminaries including Scorsese, Francis Ford Coppola, Jane Campion, Spike Lee, Wes Anderson, David Cronenberg, Ari Aster, Julie Taymor, Yorgos Lanthimos, J.J. Abrams, Josh Safdie, Todd Haynes, Judd Apatow, Damien Chazelle, Mark Cousins, Alfonso Cuarón, Willem Dafoe, Robert Eggers, Joanna Hogg, Dawn Hudson, Isabella Rossellini, Mark Ruffalo, Paul Schrader, Léa Seydoux, John Turturro, Thomas Vinterberg, Jeremy Thomas, Paweł Pawlikowski, and Debra Winger.

The government of the Lazio region, which hosts the Italian capital, is about to approve a law that will be voted on next week that would make 50 movie theaters, including Rome’s many historic and abandoned cinemas, vulnerable...

In Hollywood, Mads Mikkelsen is seen as the face of evil. From Hannibal Lecter to Le Chiffre, he has played more bad guys than good guys in popular culture. However, he just needs to turn their attention to another side of his filmography to know just how talented he can be in the moral good.

Mads Mikkelsen as Hannibal Lecter | Credit: NBC

He has been in several notable works in the Danish film industry. Most famously, he was a part of Thomas Vinterberg’s film, Another Round. The film is so beloved that it is now getting an English adaptation, directed by Chris Rock.

While the film is certainly very iconic, there is another Mikkelsen-Vinterberg that should get a remake. However, the timing might make it distasteful.

Mads Mikkelsen’s The Hunt needs a Hollywood remake

Mads Mikkelsen has played many guilty men in his career. From trying to destroy...

If the Panama Papers have become a byword for exposure of corruption and financial fraud around the world, “The Black Swan” (“Den Sorte Swane”) by Denmark’s own truth-seeking and Sundance winner Mads Brügger is poised to have a similar long-lasting effect on the Scandinavian country.

The true crime documentary series, just picked up by Dr Sales for global distribution, will be introduced to world buyers on Feb. 17 at the European Film Market in Berlin. Meanwhile at home, it continues to be the most talked about documentary since its premiere on TV2 Denmark last May. To this day, more than 2.3 million Danes (out of a population of 6 million) have watched it, making it the second most-watched program of all time in Denmark. The four-part documentary has also scored the prestigious national Robert Award for best TV series, beating strong contenders including Thomas Vinterberg’s “Families Like Ours.”

Cleverly summarised by...

“Probably the best co-producers in the world?” is the provocative title of one of the International Film Festival Rotterdam panels during “Pulling Focus,” IFFR Pro’s day dedicated to the global influence of Dutch cinema held on February 4.

The Dutch don’t normally boast; their lack of egotism is what can make them such excellent collaborators. Nonetheless, leading producers in the Netherlands agree they are indeed now adept at co-production - and that is partly because it has become a market necessity.

“Over the last 10 or 15 years, the Dutch have really oriented themselves toward the international market. In the past,...

When the Light Breaks, a quiet and haunting drama about grief from Icelandic filmmaker Rúnar Rúnarsson, won the Dragon Award for Best Nordic Film at the 48th Göteborg Film Festival. The award, which comes with a 400,000 Swedish krona ($36,000) cash prize, was announced during the closing gala Sunday night.

Shot on 16mm, When The Light Breaks stars Elín Hall (Cold, Let Me Fall) as a young art student confronted with a sudden loss who has to navigate love, friendship and grief over an endless long summer day in Iceland. The film premiered in the Cannes’ Un Certain Regard lineup.

The Göteborg jury, which included filmmakers Ella Lemhagen, Philippe Lesage, Athina Rachel Tsangari, cinematographer Jp Passi and actor Frida Gustavsson, praised the film for its “masterfully calibrated mise en scène, its sensitivity and delicate lightness, and its unexpectedly uplifting treatment of grief.”

The Audience Dragon Award for Best Nordic Film went to Eirik Svensson’s Safe House,...

When The Light Breaks, the latest film from Icelandic filmmaker Rúnar Rúnarsson, has won the Dragon Award for Best Nordic Film at this year’s Göteborg Film Festival. The award is the festival’s top competitive honor.

The award comes with a Sek 400,000 cash prize. The competition jury featured filmmaker Athina Rachel Tsangari, cinematographer Jp Passi, filmmaker Ella Lemhagen, director Philippe Lesage, and actor Frida Gustavsson.

The jury said Rúnarsson’s film was chosen “for its masterfully calibrated mise en scène, its sensitivity and delicate lightness, its director’s unexpectedly uplifting treatment of grief, acutely portrayed by a perfect young ensemble.”

The flick debuted at last year’s Cannes Film Festival. The official synopsis reads: An accident plunges Iceland into national mourning, and for young art student Una, that fateful 24-hour day will change her life forever. She carries a secret, and while her friends find solace in community, Una...

Runar Runarsson’s Icelandic feature When The Light Breaksled the winners at the 48th Goteborg Film Festival, taking the Dragon Award for best Nordic film.

Runarsson’s film, which opened the Cannes Un Certain Regard sidebar in May last year, received the 400,000 Sek Goteborg prize.

Scroll down for the full list of winners

The jury awarded the film “for its masterfully calibrated mise-en-scene, its sensitivity and delicate lightness, its director’s unexpectedly uplifting treatment of grief, acutely portrayed by a perfect young ensemble”.

A special mention went to Sylvia Le Fanu’s My Eternal Summer.

Eirik Svensson’sSafe House, which...

The Dutch film industry, often overshadowed by its European counterparts, finds itself at a potential turning point. Industry insiders are vocal about the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead, painting a picture of an industry at a crossroads.

In recent months, Dutch titles have impressed on the global stage. Johan Grimonprez’s Netherlands-Belgium-France co-production “Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat” is currently nominated for the best documentary feature Oscar, and two Dutch shorts – Victoria Warmerdam’s live-action sci-fi story “I’m Not a Robot” and Nina Gantz’s stop-motion gem “Wander to Wonder” – also scored nominations. Halina Reijn’s “Babygirl” had a fantastic festival run last year, earning Reijn a Directors to Watch Award at Palm Springs, and is currently in theaters around the world.

‘Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat’

While the cinema landscape in the Netherlands is loaded with promise and potential, the region also faces several significant challenges in developing...

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This February, Hulu is bringing you a lot of entertainment, from the highly anticipated Steven Knight series A Thousand Blows to the much-awaited Season 4 of Shoresy. However, for the purposes of this article, we are only including the films that are coming to Hulu this month and have a 90% or higher Rotten Tomatoes score. So, check out the five best films that are coming to Hulu in February 2025 with a 90% or higher Rotten Tomatoes score.

The Grand Budapest Hotel (February 1) Rotten Tomatoes Score: 92% Credit – Searchlight Pictures

The Grand Budapest Hotel is a comedy-drama film written and directed by Wes Anderson. The 2014 film follows Gustav H, a concierge working at Popular European. He is falsely accused of murder and now must prove his innocence. In his quest to clear his name, he becomes good friends with a lobby boy.

Exclusive: Pachinko and The Morning Show Studio Media Res is building out its international division by hiring a Nordics boss, who has landed first project.

Anna-Klara Carlsten, whose credits include Spring Uje Spring and Tore, will lead the Nordics slate and report into Lars Blomgren, who runs international for Media Res.

Carlsten’s first project is an Svt adaptation of Let The Right One In author John Ajvide Lindqvist’s latest novel Summer of 1985, which will be directed by The Bridge co-creator Björn Stein. Published in 2023, the story centers on a group of friends preparing for an epic summer together in the Stockholm archipelago. When the discovery of a mythic creature with mysterious origins and abilities upends their lives, new experiences and pleasures induce the group at the increasing cost of their psyches. The book comes from the celebrated author of Let The Right One In, Let Me In and Border,...

Acclaimed director Thomas Vinterberg and Goteborg’s artistic director Pia Lundberg addressed controversial remarks of Swedish Minister of Culture Parisa Liljestrand.

Lundberg admitted she was “surprised” by the Minister’s statement during the opening ceremony Jan. 24, which made for a “tumultuous” start of the event.

“The Swedish film industry [which has around $50.5 million a year in state support] is comparing itself to Denmark and Norway a lot. Denmark has twice as much money for local filmmaking production than Sweden. Norway has even more. Sweden is really far behind. Do you think Denmark could adopt Sweden on the film side?,” Lundberg asked Vinterberg during a public discussion.

“It was horrible, I heard,” he said. Vinterberg came to Sweden to pick up the Nordic Dragon Award.

“Ministers of Cultural Affairs… You quickly get rid of them. It’s a maximum of four years. She’ll vanish soon.”

According to Lundberg, Swedish industry is sometimes “jealous” of Danish films. But Vinterberg added:...

Swedish screenwriter Pelle Rådström has won the first Nordic Series Script Award for his show Pressure Point.

The award, previously known as the Nordisk Film & TV Fond Prize, was handed to Rådström this evening at the Göteborg Film Festival. The award comes with a Nok 200,000 cash prize.

The award jury featured Henriette Steenstrup, Actor and Screenwriter, Norway; Joanna Szymańska, Producer and CEO at SHIPsBOY, Poland; Linus Fremin, TV Critic and Creative Director at Make Your Mark, Sweden.

“In a time when authentic, brave storytelling is rare, Pressure Point stands out as a series that resonates with the intelligence of its audience,” the jury said in a statement. “Instead of simplifying complex human experiences, it delves deeply into themes of freedom of expression, criminal justice, and rehabilitation, presenting characters in a profoundly human way. Inspired by a real-life tragedy, it masterfully explores the consequences of good intentions going awry, challenging us...

Thomas Vinterberg is the guest of honor at Sweden’s Göteborg Film Festival where, this evening, he hosted a screening of his second feature Festen.

Directed by Vinterberg from a screenplay he co-wrote with Mogens Rukov, Festen debuted 26-year-ago in Cannes and famously launched, along with Lars von Trier’s The Idiots, the avant-garde Dogme 95 film movement.

“It was like a strike of enlightenment,” Vinterberg said of the launch of Dogme, which called on filmmakers to discard the modern trinkets of contemporary filmmaking for a stripped-back, traditional approach to cinema. The Danish filmmaker was in conversation this evening with Göteborg festival head Pia Lundberg.

However, Vinterberg said the journey to being accepted as a Dogme filmmaker wasn’t as smooth as the legend has it.

“It felt almost like a suicide mission. People were calling me before the success of Festen warning me that it could destroy my career. That...

Thomas Vinterberg is ready for “The Brothers Lionheart,” based on Astrid Lindgren’s fantasy novel.

“I’m writing it myself with the brilliant British writer Simon Stephens, so it’s a mix of things. The book is there, it’s not mine, but it’s a great journey we’re on. I really love it,” he tells Variety about his upcoming project.

Considered a children’s classic, Lindgren’s story focuses on two brothers and a mysterious land Nangijala where life conquers death.

“It’s about faith and doubt, which goes straight as an arrow right into my own life. This book has the courage to step into what every child is asking when they’re about 8 or 10 and about to go to bed. ‘What happens when we die?’ There’s so much courage in these characters and Lindgren’s story, and I hope it can be encouraging for viewers,...

As expected, Jacques Audiard’s Emilia Pérez (Netflix) landed a Best International Feature Film Oscar nomination today, one of a leading, and record-setting 13 overall for a film not in English. Other mentions for the audacious musical melodrama include Best Picture, Director, Actress and more.

With so many inclusions elsewhere, it’s possible that votes are split and Emilia Pérez does not convert to a win in the International race with folks opting to honor another deserving picture. But, if it does win, it would be the first time that a selection from France scores an Academy Award in the International category since Régis Wargnier’s Indochine in 1993.

The other titles in the International Oscar field doing crossover duty include Walter Salles’ lauded and so-called “comeback” movie, I’m Still Here from Brazil where it has done terrific box office for Sony. The movie also scored a Best Picture nomination as well...

Sweden’s Göteborg Film Festival launches its 48th edition this Friday, and for the first time in a decade, it will do so with a new Artistic Director.

Pia Lundberg, formerly Counsellor for Cultural Affairs at the Embassy of Sweden in London, replaced Jonas Holmberg as Artistic Director last March. Holmberg stepped down for a job at the Kalmar Art Museum in eastern Sweden. Before her stint in London, Lundberg was Head of International at the Swedish Film Institute from 2007 to 2018. Originally a journalist, she began her career as a writer and editor for various Swedish and international media outlets focusing on film and culture. She served as the editor-in-chief of the Swedish film magazine Cinema for four years.

Lundberg’s first edition opens with the debut screening of Norweigan filmmaker Eirik Svensson’s latest feature Safe House (Før mørket). Other highlights include visits from Thomas Vinterberg and Julie Delpy.

It’s been a matter of faith for months that the current Oscar season has brought one of the most wide-open races in years. And when it comes to which film will win Best Picture, that’s true: At this point, as many as six films have a plausible chance to win the top award.

But if you’re talking about what’s going to be nominated, things aren’t quite so unpredictable. A consensus has formed around eight of the 10 Best Picture nominees, four of the five Best Actor ones, four of the five for Best Director …

And yet, who really knows? The Academy is much bigger than it was a decade ago, with 9,905 voting members as of December, and it’s far more international. And while the majority of members are still based in Los Angeles, how many of them made the effort to watch the movies and...

Mads Mikkelsen has been in several award-winning and critically acclaimed projects over the years. Be it playing a Bond villain in Casino Royale or starring as the legendary Hannibal Lecter, the actor has truly showcased his range to the world. However, if there is one project that perfectly encapsulates the skills that he possesses, it is 2020’s Danish classic, Another Round.

Mads Mikkelsen in a still from Another Round | Credit: Nordisk Film

The film gained him more than some recognition, earning two Oscar nominations and one win. Considering how iconic the film is, it is not surprising that Hollywood wants to make an English remake of it.

With Chris Rock at the head of it, the director of the original films apparently has some words to give to the comedian, and they are not very kind. In fact, he brought up quite a publicly humiliating moment in Rock’s professional career.

The Göteborg Film Festival and Nordisk Film & TV Fond have announced the five inaugural Nordic Series Script Award nominees.

The nominated series are Families Like Ours, Money Shot, Pressure Point, Quisling, The School of Housewives.

The award was launched last year and comes with a Nok 200,000 cash prize. The jury for the Nordic Series Script Award is Henriette Steenstrup, Actor and Screenwriter, Norway; Joanna Szymańska, Producer and CEO at SHIPsBOY, Poland; Linus Fremin, TV Critic and Creative Director at Make Your Mark, Sweden.

This year the festival will also launch the Creative Courage Award to honor the producer and commissioner of a series that boldly pushes creative boundaries and embraces innovation.

Thomas Vinterberg’s “Families Like Ours,” “Pressure Point” from the writer of “Black Crab” and Erik Poppe’s “Quisling” count among nominations for a high-powered Göteborg Nordic Series Script Award, the biggest plaudit for TV screenwriting in Scandinavia.

Replacing the Göteborg Festival’s Nordisk Film & TV Fond Prize, the Script Award nominations also take in feminist porn comedy “Money Shot,” a Canneseries winner, and “The School of Housewives,” co-written and directed by Iceland’s Arnór Pálmi Arnarson, who helmed “The Minister,” starring Ólafur Darri Ólafsson.

With regard to artistic ambition, ranging broadly in style from “Families'” near-future survival drama-thriller to “Pressure Point’s” nervy and compelling true-events recreation and “Quisling’s” boldly-told period drama, these three series explore modern-times horror.

“Families” charts an apocalypse that tears Denmark’s upper middle class apart across Europe and plunges them into a merciless and sometimes violent new world; “Pressure Point” plumbs neo-Nazism, “Quisling...

Jacques Audiard, Sean Baker, Edward Berger, Brady Corbet, and James Mangold are the 2025 Directors Guild Award nominees.

The Directors Guild announced the DGA Awards nominees on Wednesday, hours after the Screen Actors Guild Award revealed its 2025 nominations.

All nominees are first-time honorees at the Directors Guild. Audiard, a cherished French filmmaker, directed Netflix’s top awards contender, Emilia Pérez. Baker, a leading indie director of this era, helmed Neon’s wild comedy-thriller, Anora. Berger is recognized for the papal suspense film Conclave from Focus Features. Corbet, who recently won Best Director at the Golden Globes, is the 36-year-old auteur of the epic A24 release The Brutalist. Lastly, Mangold is the American veteran of the group, nominated here for A Complete Unknown, about Bob Dylan.

The Directors Guild is often a good barometer of future Oscar success — but it is rarely perfect. The last time the five DGA Awards matched the...

Jacques Audiard, Sean Baker, Edward Berger, Brady Corbet and James Mangold have been nominated as the best feature film directors of 2024 by the Directors Guild of America, which announced its movie nominations on Wednesday.

Audiard was nominated for “Emilia Pérez,” Baker for “Anora,” Berger for “Conclave,” Corbet for “The Brutalist” and Mangold for “A Complete Unknown.”

The nominations make “Anora,” “A Complete Unknown,” “Conclave” and “Emilia Pérez” the only films to be nominated in the top category by both of the major guilds that announced on Wednesday, the Directors Guild and the Screen Actors Guild. “The Brutalist” was not nominated in SAG’s ensemble category, while “Wicked” was nominated for SAG’s cast award but not for director Jon M. Chu.

Other directors who didn’t make the DGA list include Coralie Fargeat for “The Substance” and Denis Villeneuve for “Dune: Part Two.”

In the category for first-time feature directors,...

The subject of toxic masculinity has been around the pop cultural block so many times in recent years that — as the topic of a film at least — it’s starting to feel a bit tired. But leave it to Australia, a country that has produced a heroic number of twisted films, to deliver a new and disturbing exploration of this oft-explored idea with Birdeater. The film is the directing debut of Jack Clark and Jim Weir, and the Aussie duo fairly drowns us in atmosphere, pulling visual and aural cues from horror and using them to tell a nerve-jangling tale of emotional abuse, gaslighting and, most importantly, cruelly manipulative and dangerously laddish male behavior.

While Clark and Weir have directorial style to spare, it’s the script, credited to just Clark, where the wheels threaten to come off. Not content to weave a straight-ahead story about the secrets and lies...

Goteborg Film Festival has unveiled the programme for its 48th edition, with 22 feature world premieres and four feature competition sections.

World premiere titles include Asier Urbieta’s Spanish thriller Pheasant Island in the international competition section. The debut feature from Spanish filmmaker Urbieta sees a young Basque couple’s relationship put to the test when a dead body is found on the mysterious titular island.

Scroll down for the feature competition sections

It is one of 18 films in the international competition, alongside 2024 festival favourites Santosh, To A Land Unknown and All We Imagine As Light.

The nine-strong Nordic competition includes three world premieres.

Sweden’s Göteborg Film Festival will open with a world premiere screening of Norweigan filmmaker Eirik Svensson’s latest feature Safe House (Før mørket).

Set during the Central African Republic’s civil war in 2013, the film centers on a desperate Muslim man seeking refuge in a field hospital on Christmas Eve, while a threatening Christian militia gathers outside, demanding his life. At the heart of the events is Norwegian aid worker Linn, played by Kristine Kujath Thorp, who must make moral decisions to protect the man without endangering her colleagues.

The film will screen in satellite venues across Sweden at the same time as the Göteborg premiere. The film will also be available to watch through the festival’s digital platform.

Göteborg will this year also hand honorary awards to Thomas Vinterberg and Julie Delpy. The festival has said it is honoring Vinterberg for his deft talent for portraying “deeply...

After a decade under the helm of Jonas Holmberg, the 48th Göteborg Film festival will inaugurate a new era under the reign of artistic director Pia Lundberg. Big names expected between Jan 24-Feb. 2 take in Julie Delpy, Thomas Vinterberg, Mohammad Rasoulof, Joshua Oppenheimer, Thomas Alfredson and Trine Dyrholm.

In this exclusive interview, the former head of international at the Swedish Film Institute and Cultural Attaché at the Swedish Embassy in London opens up about the challenges of programming the biggest film festival in the Nordics.

This is your first gig as artistic director. What do you feel you are bringing to the festival, with your unique experience, background and competence?

Pia Lundberg: My predecessor Jonas Holmberg who worked a decade for the festival, was hugely experienced so I have big shoes to fill. But I believe that what I bring is a deep understanding of festivals through my own 10-year...

Scandinavia’s biggest film-tv event, the Göteborg Film Festival, has unveiled the complete lineup for its 48th edition, due to unspool Jan. 24-Feb. 2 in Sweden’s second largest city.

For her first gig as artistic director, Pia Lundberg and her team will be treating the festival’s usual 270,000-plus film fans in theaters and online to a rich program of 270 films from 83 countries, including 25 world premieres.

Setting the tone for this year’s overarching theme of “Disobedience” and civil resistance will be the opening film “Safe House” by Norwegian helmer Eirik Svensson starring “Sick of Myself”’s Kristine Kujath Thorp and “Gladiator 2”’s Alexander Karim. Based on the real-life story of Doctors Without Borders’ Director General in Norway Lindin Hurum, the story is set in a refugee camp during the 2013 civil war in the Central African Republic. Norwegian aid worker Linn is under severe pressure as she strives to...

The Göteborg Film Festival, Sweden’s leading film fest, has unveiled its 2025 lineup, which features several award season contenders, including Brady Corbet’s Golden Globe winner The Brutalist, Magnus von Horn’s The Girl with the Needle, and Luca Guadagnino’s Queer.

The Brutalist picked up three Golden Globes this Sunday, including for best picture, drama, best director for Corbet and best actor, drama for star Brody. In the historical epic, Brody plays László Tóth, a Jewish architect who arrives in America from Budapest after surviving World War II. The film co-stars Felicity Jones as László’s wife and Guy Pearce as billionaire Harrison Lee Van Buren Sr.

Daniel Craig scored a best actor, drama nomination at the Globes for his starring role in Queer as William Lee, based on William S. Burroughs’ alter ego, following his journey through Mexico and South America with Drew Starkey as Gene. The Girl with the Needle,...

Sweden’s Göteborg Film Festival will open with a world premiere screening of Norweigan filmmaker Eirik Svensson’s latest feature Safe House (Før mørket).

Set during the Central African Republic’s civil war in 2013, the film centers on a desperate Muslim man seeking refuge in a field hospital on Christmas Eve, while a threatening Christian militia gathers outside, demanding his life. At the heart of the events is Norwegian aid worker Linn, played by Kristine Kujath Thorp, who must make moral decisions to protect the man without endangering her colleagues.

The film will screen in satellite venues across Sweden at the same time as the Göteborg premiere. The film will also be available to watch through the festival’s digital platform.

Göteborg will this year also hand honorary awards to Thomas Vinterberg and Julie Delpy. The festival has said it is honoring Vinterberg for his deft talent for portraying “deeply...

The American remake of Another Round still has Chris Rock attached to direct, but it’s taken a while to find a new writer for it.

Pretty much since the superb Another Round first landed back in 2020, there’s been chatter about an American remake of the film. Starring Mads Mikkelsen and directed by Thomas Vinterberg, the comedy drama won an Oscar and rightly so. Considering the themes the film deals with, it’s astonishing it’s such an accessible and hugely entertaining film.

Leonardo DiCaprio’s company Appian Way swooped in quickly for the remake rights to the movie, and he’s going to be producing the new film. That deal was done a few years ago, but finally, there may be some sign of momentum here.

That’s because the new Another Round attracted the interest of Chris Rock, who signed up to direct the movie way back...

Exclusive: Tony and Pulitzer Prize winner David Auburn (Proof) has been tapped to write a new draft of Another Round, the English-language remake of Thomas Vinterberg’s Oscar-winning Danish drama from 2020, which has Chris Rock on board to direct.

Rock joined the project in January, as we were first to report. At the time, he had a draft in hand from Stuart Blumberg but was looking for another writer with which to partner. We’re told Auburn landed the job after a long search, beating out maybe 200 scribes in the process.

Leonardo DiCaprio’s Appian Way Productions secured the remake rights to Another Round shortly after the film landed the Best International Feature prize at the Academy Awards. We’re told that the project is picking up steam now that Auburn is involved, though Rock did just sign on to direct and star in Misty Green, a Hollywood drama for which he wrote the script,...

Dogme 95 was a film movement founded by Danish directors Lars von Trier and Thomas Vinterberg in the late 1990s. Its goal was to "purify" filmmaking, stripping it down to its bare essentials. These filmmakers rejected what they saw as cinematic artifice: special effects, elaborate sets, and extravagant post-production techniques. Instead, they placed a premium on authenticity and raw emotion, filming on location, using hand-held cameras, and keeping the props to a minimum.

Denmark has approved the launch of a tax incentive to lure international TV and films, joining the ranks of all other Nordic countries which each have a rebate program.

Denmark has been lagging behind other European countries such as France, Germany and Czech Republic due to its lack of tax incentive. In spite of its vibrant creative community and home to many critically acclaimed directors such as Susanne Bier, Lars van Trier, Nicolas Winding Refn and Thomas Vinterberg, Denmark is currently the only country in Europe, along with Luxembourg, to not have a rebate program in place.

The Danish incentive, which will kick off in 2026, will tap into an annual envelop of Dkk 125 million ($17.5 million) — twice the amount allocated to foreign productions in Sweden and significantly larger than in Norway. The rebate on eligible expenses is expected to be 25%.

The new head of the Danish Producers Association, Anna Porse Nielsen,...

For its upcoming edition, the Marrakech Film Festival is pulling out all the stops.

After a more subdued edition last year due to the Israel-Hamas conflict and the effects of a disastrous earthquake, the event — which has close ties with the crème de la crème of global auteurs — can boast a talent roster on the scale of top international festivals such as Cannes or Venice for its 21st iteration, set to run Nov. 29 to Dec. 7 in the ancient Moroccan city.

Big names set to make the trek to Morocco include Sean Penn, Tim Burton and Monica Bellucci, Alfonso Cuarón, Justine Triet, Ava DuVernay and David Cronenberg. Luca Guadagnino is presiding over the competition jury, which includes hotshot actors Jacob Elordi and Andrew Garfield.

Below, Variety speaks with the fest’s artistic director Rémi Bonhomme – a former driving force behind Cannes’ Critics Week – about how he pulled it off and...